An apparent act of sabotage on the MacKay Bridge resulted in a loss of communications between sewage pumping stations and the Dartmouth sewage plant; that in turn led to raw sewage being dumped into Halifax Harbour. When we asked a Halifax Water spokesperson about it, he denied there was a discharge of raw sewage and gave us a counter-narrative that was patently not true. Today, the Department of Environment confirms that in fact raw sewage was discharged into the harbour.

At around 3:30am on Saturday, a man was seen walking on the catwalk under the MacKay Bridge, confirms Sergeant Stephanie Carlisle of the Halifax Regional Police Department. Security around the bridge has increased in recent years, especially since Holly Bartlett was found mortally wounded under the bridge on the Halifax side of the harbour. Barbed wire […]

Part 4: Message Control and the Northern Pulp Mill’s Cancer-Causing Air Emissions

Nova Scotia Lands, a provincial crown corporation charged with cleaning up Boat Harbour, played a role in silencing two Dalhousie University researchers whose work studied air pollution coming from the Northern Pulp mill, the Halifax Examiner has learned. In Part 3 of the Dirty Dealing series, I reported on the researchers’ 2017 ambient air study, which revealed […]

Michelle Dolbec has one of those storybook too-good-to-be true stories about why she moved to Nova Scotia. She was living in Ottawa, then got married and took a sailing trip with her husband. “We sailed into St. Margaret’s Bay on our honeymoon, and decided we wanted to stay here,” she told a group of people...

A handful of citizens who live beside a cement plant in Brookfield, 10 kilometers south of Truro, have lost a court battle to prevent Lafarge Canada from burning tires for fuel. CABOT (Citizens Against the Burning of Tires) launched a judicial review of Environment Minister Iain Rankin’s decision last July approving the project. Yesterday, Nova...

The plan to pipe effluent from the Northern Pulp Mill into the Northumberland Strait is dividing the community of Pictou, pitting neighbour against neighbour and fishermen against mill workers.

This is a follow-up to Linda Pannozzo’s investigative articles in The Halifax Examiner detailing the issues around Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment and disposal system: Dirty Dealing Part 1: Northern Pulp mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists; Dirty Dealing Part 2: Wading through the quagmire […]

The Nova Scotia Health Authority sent a letter to Halifax council opposing the South Park Street bike lane.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) has taken a surprise position on the expansion and improvement of the South Park Street bike lane: they’re against it. At least they are against the disruption to available on-street parking that it might cause. In a letter to city council dated March 5, 2018 (the day before council...

In a study published in 2017, Dalhousie University researchers reported that air levels of three volatile organic compounds (VOCs) near the Abercrombie pulp mill in Pictou County exceeded cancer risk thresholds and “are of primary health concern in terms of population risk.” Over an eight-year period (2006-2013), 1,3-butadiene, benzene, and carbon tetrachloride were found to […]

Vikas Mehta asks: Who benefits from the New Urbanism, and more importantly, who doesn't?

Leave it to those pesky university students. Just when Halifax staff and council seem all prepared to fully embrace the concept of Complete Streets, Dal planning students are bringing Vikas Mehta to Halifax to remind us that the popular new urbanist concept might have a weakness or two of its own. Mehta will be here...

A fuel called UDMH has a worrisome health record, and some scientists say it presents a danger to Nova Scotia and ocean creatures.

Sometime over the next few months, the top two municipal officials with the District of Guysborough will travel to Vandenburg Air Force base in California to watch a rocket launch. Municipal council voted to pay for a fact-finding trip — which includes an equally important visit to rocket fuel company United Paradyne — by CAO...